Courts and Crime

A federal grand jury returned an indictment on September 27 and it was unsealed Wednesday. The indictment charges the defendants in connection with a conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise known as the La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. The indictments include charges associated with the death of a Lynchburg teen who was killed in Bedford County.
Those indicted include:
Carlos Roberto Tejada Cruz, a/k/a “Krusty,” age 20, of Beltsville, Maryland;

Two additional suspects have been charged in connection with the murder of a teen in Bedford County last March.
Kevin Soto-Bonilla, age 20, was arrested in New York on September 19, 2017. He will be extradited back to Bedford in the coming days.
Cristian José Sánchez-Gómez, age 22, was arrested on October 5, 2017 in Albemarle County, Va. He is being held in the Blue Ridge Regional Jail on no bond.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment on September 27 and it was unsealed Wednesday. The indictment charges the defendants in connection with a conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise known as the La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. The indictments include charges associated with the death of a Lynchburg teen who was killed in Bedford County.

A Bedford teen pleaded guilty to four felonies Friday in connection with an October 2016 incident in which he stole a gun from his parents’ home and fired at several occupied vehicles.
Daniel Jared Flint, 18, entered guilty pleas in Bedford Circuit Court to two counts of shooting at an occupied vehicle, one count of possessing a firearm after being involuntarily committed and one count of destruction of property.

Bedford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance called them the heroes of the Lyon sisters case: They were the investigators that put in thousands of hours of work in making the first degree murder cases against Lloyd Lee Welch Jr.

On Thursday, September 14, at about 8:13 a.m.., the Bedford Police Department responded to a report of a stabbing at a residence in the 400 block of West King Street in the town.
The first officers arrived to find Dewayne Eric Simmons, 34 of Bedford, and a 46-year-old female of Bedford, inside the residence. Dewayne Simmons ran on foot from the residence to wooded area across Crenshaw Street from the residence.

Wes Nance remembers the initial presentation made to members of the Bedford County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office about a new case they were taking on—a case that began in Maryland 40 years ago and one that investigators believed ended on Taylors Mountain in Bedford County.

Three years ago to the day in which officers from the Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department’s Cold Case Unit dropped by the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office to lay on the desk of the department a 40-year-old abduction and murder case, at least one of the persons responsible for those murders pleaded guilty to those crimes.

Two Bedford teenagers are facing additional charges for property damage incidents that occurred in February.
William A. Bailey, 18, of Bedford, is currently facing 22 charges in General District Court. The most recent charges, for which he was charged on Aug. 26, are for incidents that occurred on the north side of Bedford County.
Those charges include:

A 45-year-old Rhode Island man, who contacted a local 11-year-old autistic girl through the Internet, will spend 15 years in prison on four child porn charges.
Paulo B. Tomas, of Cumberland, Rhode Island, was arrested in January by Rhode Island State Police. The charges were related to a child sexual exploitation investigation in Bedford County.